Takata Airbag Recall to Exceed 100 Million Vehicles

The largest recall in the history of the United States is about to exceed 100 million vehicles due to the faulty Takata airbag.

Details about the Recall

KMTV News is reporting that the largest auto recall in the history of the United States has just been issued, and it involves some 100 million vehicles across the nation. Safety experts are warning people with certain Honda or Acura vehicles to immediately have the airbags replaced.

The recall is happening worldwide not just in the United States, and it is expected to get bigger. Rebecca Barrientos-Patlan was told that she has a Takata airbag in her 2015 Nissan Sentra. She stated that she “was very angry because they sold me a broken car,” Patlan said. “I paid more than $30,000 for this car, my husband and I.”

The article stated that “Owners of 2001 to 2003 Hondas or Acuras have a greater risk of harm. Eight of the 10 US Takata-related deaths were driving those model year Hondas or Acuras, said Rose White, spokeswoman for AAA Nebraska. The rate at which this is growing is alarming. The best thing that consumers can do if they do not have a 2001-2003 Honda or Acura is to register their car at safecar.gov.

• At the heart of the problem is the airbag’s inflator, a metal cartridge loaded with propellant wafers, which in some cases has ignited with explosive force. If the inflator housing ruptures in a crash, metal shards from the airbag can be sprayed throughout the passenger cabin—a potentially disastrous outcome from a supposedly life-saving device. • NHTSA has determined the root cause of the problem: airbags that use ammonium nitrate-based propellant without a chemical drying agent. • Through various announcements, the recall has tripled in size over the past year. It currently stands at more than 100 million vehicles worldwide with airbag inflators needing to be replaced before 2019. • Ten fatalities and more than 100 injuries have been linked to the Takata airbags, and in some cases the incidents were horrific, with metal shards penetrating a driver’s face and neck. As awful as they are, such incidents are very rare. • In June of 2015, Takata stated that it was aware of 88 ruptures in total: 67 on the driver’s side and 21 on the passenger’s side out of what it calculated was just over 1.2 million airbag deployments spread over 15 years.